So, I decided I should probably post about my #PLAN for the foreseeable future. A lot of people ask about my investment theses, so that seems to justify this post. Let’s see if I can even begin to support that statement.

One of my goals was to reduce or eliminate paying taxes and we are well-situated in that respect. Future years may see us paying a little tax, but nothing like we have been paying our entire lives. This year, we even got a refund of taxes withheld!

Now, about income; all the income from our Roth Ira accounts is untaxed and not reported to the government. My IRA is a *puny* tax-advantaged account, and is slowly being converted to my Roth IRA. Each conversion is at least a partially taxable event, so that might add to the possibility that we will at some point have to pay taxes. Our joint account is a taxable account, but we have tax-free holdings in there, as well as some that pay qualified dividends, like ABBV, BF.A, BF.B, GLOP, LOAN, RCKY, and VGR. I plan to make each holding pay a fairly equal amount so that I don’t have too many ‘tax-free’ holdings or holdings that pay ‘qualified’ dividends. I would like a level playing field there. Just because…

About Robinhood…

I liked it. I didn’t love it. All positions have been sold and the cash has been transferred out as of the end of April. The account is now closed.

Capital One Investing – I am transferring our accounts to BAML Edge. There is only a small amount left in each account, and I’m still waiting for some of the cost basis to be updated. We have a total of $0.73 remaining there. They have transferred another $0.01 since March.

Fidelity – I have transferred our accounts to BAML Edge.

Capital One and Fidelity accounts were combined. PandAjoint was absorbed into ind-PandA and renamed PandA, Fidelity Roth-P was absorbed into Roth-P and renamed RothP, Fidelity Roth-A was absorbed into Roth-A and renamed RothA, and IRA-P will be renamed IRAP. Robinhood holdings were liquidated, and the cash was transferred to our joint checking. What remains now is; PandA, RothP, RothA, and IRAP, all at Merrill Edge. So much for naming conventions.

Now, a little about my investing philosophy; “If they don’t pay, I don’t play”. I LOVE dividends! So, if a stock pays dividends, I’m interested, and if they don’t I’m *generally* disinterested. Simple plan for a simple man.

Our #HYHRD (High Yield, High Return Dividend) portfolio is all about the income, so that’s what I look for in an investment; high yield while minimizing risk as best I can (dividend yields of ~5%+ & annual returns of ~10%+).

According to calculations done on my Google sheets, my current YOC (Yield on Cost) is better than that! I factor in the cash held in each account for the total portfolio value. The total value of the portfolio is now more correctly reflected on the spreadsheets because of this.

I am often asked what my “favorite” holding is, and I really can’t answer that. Here’s why; to have a favorite entails some sort of emotional attachment and I am not emotionally enamored with any of my holdings and would sell it all in a heartbeat if they fail to pay me. I’m tired of paying for things, and I want to be paid now. I just really feel like it’s “my turn”!

I don’t day trade, or swing trade, or play options (anymore).

If any questions are posted on my blog, I’ll answer them and include them here in future posts if I think of it when posting. 😉

I’ll also continue to try and be as helpful as I can on the StockTwits platform.

How do you like the recent stock market action? Are you someone who will #BTFD or #STFR?

I do see some possibility of turmoil ahead. It usually begins with news items that start out with “Trump tweets…”, or something about the midget with the bad hair from North Korea, or something else equally sensational, so there’s that. Who will Trump fire next on this reality game show of his? OK, enough politics…

Let’s talk religion instead;

MILESTONE!: We have collected over $125,000.00 in dividends since the inception of the #HYHRD portfolio. This milestone was reached on August 1st, 2017. Next milestone will be $150,000.00 in dividends received.

I will be converting 1/5th, then 1/4th, then 1/3rd, then 1/2, and then the remainder of my IRA to my Roth IRA in January of each year.

Capital One Investing also had this notice about our account(s) being moved to etrade on login;

Regarding Merril Edge; So far, I’m underwhelmed. Dividends show up a day later than the pay date. It’s hard to see all activity on one screen, but their math seems to be correct, so far. It’s early yet, so let’s see how it goes. I want to get the cash bonus they promised…

My opinion of Merrill Edge is slightly higher than my last post. I guess I’m getting used to it…

…although their phone support is abysmal. “It’s like I’m talking to a dolphin”…

I am starting to like Merrill Edge a little bit more, and find their dividends are either posted same day now or up to a day late. Could things be improving?

I still greatly dislike the fact that they are absolutely unwilling to bend on waiving the corporate action fee of $30 for rights offerings, etc.

I will leave you with a (rather large) screenshot from my Google sheets that shows all of our holdings, ranked by total return (there’s also position size ranking, %change since purchase rank, rank by yield, type of security, frequency of dividend payments, total return), etc.;

PLEASE TAKE NOTE AND REMEMBER THIS!

I’m not telling anyone to buy anything or giving anyone any advice, because that’s illegal. You see, I have no letters after my name, like RIA, CFA, etc. I SIMPLY DO NOT GIVE ADVICE. I only tell (and show!) what I do. You, like me, are all alone in this.

Hey Panda, I am bummed that CapitalOne is going to ETrade. I have had that account since the old Sharebuilder days, really loved setting things up for scheduled buys and such. On Div days, I always get the div forst thing, I hope ETrade is as good. I will wait for more info from you on how you overall like BAML Edge, but for now I am hoping the move to ETrade is not a major malfunction.

Market is weird, when you think it will drop, it just keeps on going up. Any sort of red seems to be a hint to go long, but I think we are getting tired up here. There can only be so many short squeezes! I just buy good dividend paying stocks, DRIP most, and will hopefully have a nice income on divs when I retire in about 10 years. Currently have 2 accounts, and divs are about 15k per year, so looking to get it to about 30k per year in another 10 years. (Lots of 10% yielders that seem safe for the moment)

Sold a big position in CORR on Friday at a very nice profit, so I am sitting on some cash for the moment, waiting for the market to just take a damn breath so I can hopefully snag some bargains. Recently got HDLV for under $24, will continue to get more if I ever get that price again. I have TOO big a list of stocks I would like to get should we see some sort of correction this year, need to really dig deep in the DD and whittle it down.

Hope you had a Happy Fathers Day! Love the blog and the tracker, keep up the great work!

Yeah, I wasn’t thrilled about etrade. $6.95/trade is not to my liking. BofA & Merrill Edge in general are the evil giants of banking and brokering. But, they were offering free trades. You have to go in to the office to see a financial advisor (or set up online) to get paperwork done. Capital One is now waiving fees for transfers of assets. Previously they announced they would not. Baml Edge is a day late posting dividends, but they’re always correct amount, and they participate in discount re-investment programs. The financial advisor got me an additional 50% bonus but lied to us about preferred rewards and other things. No matter, I will never see him again. He also bungled the paperwork several times before it all got straightened out. Took a while, though. Many visits to his office to sign papers, then another visit because he filled out the wrong form, or the right form was filled out incorrectly. Typical rich kid with a silver spoon. Then, of course, he hands you off to their ‘phone team’ which is staffed by cretins. Never got the same answer twice from them, and always had to wait for them to check with their ‘back office’. Found out correct info from others on Stocktwits and Twitter and Seeking Alpha.

Markets will drop is the ‘theme du jour’ for past year or so. It will drop when it drops. I got out of all leveraged ETNs because of the clause in their prospectus that the issue will be redeemed or become worthless if it drops too much. Came too close too many times. You have about twice what I’ve got, so from where I sit you’re in good shape.